Grade by Grade
A. Dance / C. Music · Music and Dance

Dance: Dancing Poems, Stories and Characters

A1.2 A2.1 A2.2About 40 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can explore and share ideas from poems and stories through dance.
  • I can use gestures, positive and negative space, and pathways in the air and on the floor to show images and characters.
  • I can explain how dance can make an idea, an image or a character in a story clearer and stronger.
  • I can name the elements in a dance and say how they help show ideas and feelings.

Words to know

literature
Stories, poems, fables, legends and plays that people write or tell.
image
A picture that words make in your mind, like "the trees bow down their heads".
character
A person, animal or creature in a story.
positive space
The space your body fills.
negative space
The empty space around your body and in the gaps your body makes, like the hole inside a circle of arms.
pathway in the air
A line or shape you draw in the air with a body part, like tracing a spiral with your hand.
pathway on the floor
The path your feet travel across the floor: straight, curved or zigzag.
clarify / highlight
To make an idea clearer / to make it stand out so people notice it.

Remember from Grade 3

In Grade 3 you danced stories using time and energy: sneaking slowly and carefully, running fast and strong. This year you will dig deeper into poems, fables and stories. You will learn how dance can clarify (make clearer) and highlight (make stand out) the ideas, images and characters in literature.

Dance is a language

A poem uses words to paint pictures. A dance uses movement to paint the same pictures, without saying a word. Sometimes dance can show something words cannot, like how a character feels inside.

Here is a short poem by Christina Rossetti, an English poet who lived more than 100 years ago:

Who has seen the wind? Neither I nor you: But when the leaves hang trembling, The wind is passing through.

We cannot see the wind. We only see what it does: trembling leaves. A dancer can show the invisible wind by showing what it does to things.

Golden aspen leaves blowing on their branches against a blue sky, with a few leaves flying through the air.
We can't see the wind, only what it does to the leaves, just like in the poem. How could your body show trembling leaves? AI-generated image

New Grade 4 tools for showing ideas

  • Gesture: a small movement with a meaning. A trembling hand can show a trembling leaf. A shrug can show a puzzled character.
  • Positive and negative space: positive space is the space your body fills. Negative space is the empty space around you and in the gaps your body makes. A dancer with arms in a big circle makes a hole of negative space that could be a window, a mouse hole or the moon.
  • Pathways in the air and on the floor: your hand can draw a spiral in the air to show the wind swirling. Your feet can travel a zigzag pathway on the floor to show a mouse dodging around.
straighta rushing rivercurveda gliding birdzigzaga scurrying mousespirala swirling wind
Four pathways your feet (or hands) can draw, with an idea each one could show. Choose the pathway that matches your character or image.
Lines = the body:positive spaceShaded gaps:negative space
Hands on hips: the lines of the body are positive space. The shaded gaps between the arms and the body, and between the legs, are negative space.
Worked example

Example: Let's dance a poem, line by line

Let's turn Christina Rossetti's poem Who has seen the wind? into a dance. We want to highlight the big idea: we cannot see the wind, but we see what it does.

  1. Line 1, "Who has seen the wind?": a gesture: shade your eyes and look all around, searching. Turn slowly in a circle.
  2. Line 2, "Neither I nor you": shake your head and point to yourself, then to the audience (two gestures).
  3. Line 3, "But when the leaves hang trembling": reach your arms up high like branches and make your fingers tremble (vibrate) lightly.
  4. Line 4, "The wind is passing through": draw a long, curving pathway in the air with one arm, then travel across the floor in a curved pathway, as if you are the wind itself.
  5. Highlight the big idea: repeat the trembling fingers at the very end, then freeze. Repeating a move makes the audience notice it.

Each line of the poem has its own movement. The gestures show searching and "not me, not you". The trembling fingers and the air pathway show the invisible wind by showing what it does. Repeating the tremble at the end highlights the main idea.

Worked example

Example: Let's show two characters from a fable

In Aesop's fable The Lion and the Mouse, a mighty lion lets a tiny mouse go free. Later, the lion is caught in a hunter's net, and the mouse chews through the ropes to free him. How can dance make these two characters clear?

  1. The lion: big, strong, slow steps with a wide, symmetrical stance. Fill lots of positive space: stretch tall and wide.
  2. The mouse: tiny, light, quick steps at a low level, in a zigzag pathway on the floor. Small, quick gestures: twitching nose, nibbling hands.
  3. The net: the lion curls into a tight, twisted shape. The gaps between the lion's arms are negative space, the holes in the net.
  4. The rescue: the mouse nibbles at the gaps, and the lion's shape slowly opens wider and wider until he is free.
  5. The ending: lion and mouse freeze side by side: one high, one low, now friends.

The contrast between big and small, strong and light, slow and quick makes each character clear. Using negative space for the net shows an image the audience can imagine. The ending shows the big idea of the fable: even a small friend can help a big one.

Dancing stories with respect

Many First Nations, Métis and Inuit stories are shared by Elders and storytellers, and some belong to a family or community or are told only at certain times of year. If you want to dance a story from a community, use a book or video made by people of that community, and ask a teacher or librarian whether the story is meant to be shared this way.

Just for fun

Who has seen the wind? Nobody, says the poem. But everybody has seen what it does to their hat on a windy day!

Hands-on activity

Dance a page from your bookshelf

You need: a favourite picture book, poem or fable, and a safe open space.

  1. Choose one short poem or one scene from a story.
  2. List the characters and two images (pictures the words make in your mind).
  3. For each character, choose a level, a speed, a pathway on the floor and one gesture.
  4. Show one image using negative space (for example, arms making a doorway, a cave or a nest).
  5. Read the words aloud, or have a grown-up read them, while you dance.
  6. Ask your audience: "What did my dance help you notice that you didn't notice in the words?"

Your turn

1

Make a shape with a big hole of negative space in it. What could the hole be in a story?

2

Draw a spiral pathway in the air with your hand. What could it show in a poem?

3

Travel in a zigzag pathway on the floor like the mouse. Then travel in a straight pathway like the lion. How do they feel different?

4

Make a gesture that shows a character is sad.

5

In the wind poem, why does the dancer show trembling leaves instead of the wind itself?

6

What does it mean to highlight an idea in a dance?

More practice: warm-up

1

What is positive space?

2

Name two kinds of literature you could dance.

3

Show the lion's strong walk.

4

Show the mouse's light walk.

5

Is a pathway your feet travel on the floor or in the air?

More practice: on your own

1

Dance this line: "The snow fell softly all night long." Name one element you used and why.

2

How can dance clarify a character's feelings that the words don't say?

3

Using negative space, show a cave in a story. Explain your shape.

4

Your friend dances the lion and the mouse exactly the same way. Give two pieces of advice.

5

A dancer repeats a gesture three times at the end of a poem. Why might she do that?

Challenge

1

Choose a character from a book you know. Describe how you would show who they are using a level, a pathway and a gesture.

2

Make a dance for this line: "The trees bow down their heads." (also by Christina Rossetti). Explain how you show an image and an idea.

3

How is dancing a poem like translating it into another language?

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

The space your body fills is called ___.

2.

A dancer makes a circle with her arms. The empty hole in the middle is ___.

3.

Which is a pathway in the air?

4.

In Who has seen the wind? the dancer shows trembling leaves because ___.

5.

How could a dancer make a tiny mouse character clear?

6.

Repeating a key move at the end of a dance helps to ___ an idea.

For parents and teachers

Big idea: Students use dance as a language to explore and communicate ideas from literature (A1.2), and show how dance can clarify and highlight ideas, images and characters from familiar stories (A2.1). New Grade 4 elements here are gesture, positive and negative space, and pathways in the air and on the floor. They also explain how elements communicate ideas (A2.2).

How to help at home:

  • At bedtime reading, stop at a vivid sentence and ask, "How could you show that with your body?"
  • Ask, "What does your dance show that the words don't?" This builds the idea that dance adds meaning.
  • Fables (Aesop), short poems and picture books are great sources. Short is better!

Common difficulties:

  • Acting it out with mime only. Mime is a good start; encourage your child to also change level, speed, pathway and energy.
  • Negative space is abstract. Point out the gaps your child's shape makes: "Look, there's a doorway under your arm!"
  • Choosing a story that is too long. One scene or one stanza is plenty.
  • Respect for stories: some Indigenous stories are shared only at certain times or belong to a community. Use books and videos created by those communities.